The Death of General Wolfe 2
Benjamin West was busy sketching out ideas for one of history's most controversial paintings here. You can see the frantic energy of the moment as figures gather around the dying General Wolfe, captured in loose, scribbly lines that show the artist's mind at work before the final brushstrokes. West famously shocked the art world by eventually painting these soldiers in their actual 18th-century uniforms instead of the classical togas everyone expected, a bold move that basically invented modern historical painting and changed how we see history forever.
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